You’ve heard of employees’ compensation. You could even have had workers who wanted it once they have been injured at work. However there’s additionally a number of misinformation about employees comp insurance coverage in Florida that you simply may imagine.
Misinformation that may very well be stopping you from getting high-quality protection or lead you to suppose you don’t want to hold employees compensation insurance coverage in any respect.
As a Florida insurance coverage company, our purpose is for all of our purchasers to have the correct quantity of employees’ comp protection for his or her property, individual, and enterprise. And whether or not you’re employed for or personal a small enterprise, it is advisable to know the entire fact about Florida employees’ compensation insurance coverage.
Fantasy #1. “Employees’ comp insurance coverage is simply too costly.”
For some motive, too many enterprise house owners consider employees’ comp insurance coverage as a luxurious. However this kind of considering can result in disastrous outcomes for his or her enterprise.
For one factor, if your small business is amongst these which are required by Florida state legislation to hold employees’ comp insurance coverage, you’ll be confronted with a Cease-Work Order and need to pay a wonderful if you’re discovered to be in violation of the legislation.
In lots of circumstances, the penalty plus the quantity of misplaced earnings is way more than the price of paying your premiums. Along with these penalties, additionally, you will need to pay out of pocket if any workers injure themselves on the job.
Even when your small business isn’t required to hold employees’ comp, it’s nonetheless higher to have it. Employees’ compensation premiums are primarily based partly in your payroll, and there are limits in place to forestall you from having to pay out the nostril.
What is too costly is dropping your small business fully as a result of an injured worker decides to sue. Going with out employees’ comp simply to avoid wasting a couple of dollars isn’t price it.
Fantasy #2. “Solely massive companies want employees’ comp. My workers are solely part-time (or associated to me).”
Whatever the measurement of your small business, employees’ comp insurance coverage is all the time a good suggestion.
The truth is, most states suppose employees’ comp is so vital, that they require companies to hold it. In Florida, your small business business will typically decide whether or not you might be mandated to hold it.
Within the building business for instance, you need to have Florida employees’ compensation insurance coverage if in case you have a number of workers. For non-construction companies (excluding the agricultural business), you need to have a employees’ comp coverage if in case you have 4 or extra workers, together with part-timers.
And sure, your loved ones members rely as workers.
Fantasy #3. “My workers’ jobs aren’t harmful, so I don’t want employees ‘comp.”
There’s a false impression that building websites, warehouses, and factories are the one places that office accidents can occur. That is merely unfaithful. The truth is, workplace employees are greater than twice as prone to endure a office damage than non-office employees.
Not solely are workplace employees not often given security coaching (like building employees are), however there are sometimes hidden risks across the workplace. Staff journey and fall over workplace tools, sprain their neck whereas cradling the telephone, and even come to blows over a work-related dispute.
Accidents can occur wherever and the best insurance coverage protection can defend your small business from smash.
Fantasy #4. “My workers are like household. They might by no means sue me.”
It’s a comforting thought (and it in all probability makes it extra nice to go to work day by day), however how assured are you that no scenario exists to make your worker take into account suing you?
In a rustic the place folks have been recognized to sue or disown their very own members of the family, no enterprise can declare that they’re an excessive amount of like household to have a lawsuit on their palms.
I’m additionally keen to wager that your worker’s household isn’t as loyal to you. If an worker dies because of their office accident, surviving members of the family typically sue the employer for negligence.
Should you consider your workers as identical to household, deal with them prefer it! Give them the respect and consideration they deserve by ensuring they are going to be offered for within the occasion they’re injured on the job.
Fantasy #5. “I don’t want to hold employees’ comp. I’ll simply pay for any accidents out of pocket.”
In case you have just one or two workers, it may appear extra tempting to take your probabilities and never carry Florida employees’ comp insurance coverage. In any case, what are the percentages that your solely worker will develop a severe damage or sickness whereas working? And even when they do, their medical payments are sure to be lower than the price of the premiums, proper?
It feels like a good suggestion in idea, however there are method too many ways in which this case might go mistaken. In any case, nobody can put together for accidents; that’s what makes them accidents. So what occurs when your worker loses a limb or once they expertise problems from the damage weeks, months, or years later? These medical prices add up shortly.
In addition to, when you solely have two workers and also you lose one in all them to a work-related damage or sickness, you’ve simply misplaced half your workforce. Is {that a} threat you’re keen to take?
You possibly can’t predict which sort of accident your workers usually tend to endure from and what the fallout of these accidents can be. Ultimately, having a employees’ comp insurance coverage coverage is the most secure wager.
Fantasy #6. “I don’t have to hold employees’ comp insurance coverage if I name my workers ‘impartial contractors.’”
That is technically true.
Impartial contractors are usually not eligible for employees’ compensation protection. However your worker doesn’t turn into an impartial contractor simply since you say she is. The definition of impartial contractor is ready by the IRS, and misclassifying an worker as an impartial contractor can have severe penalties.
Not solely is that this follow unlawful, but it surely’s additionally unfair to your workers and morally mistaken.
And in case your impartial contractors don’t carry and supply proof of their very own employees’ compensation insurance coverage, the accountability falls again on you. So not solely might your uninsured impartial contractors nonetheless sue you if they’re injured on the job, however your insurance coverage provider can even cost you a premium on your uninsured impartial contractors once they audit your coverage annually.
Fantasy #7. “I don’t have any workers, simply subcontractors. I don’t want employees’ comp.”
In completely good circumstances, this state of affairs checks out. However when was the final time you heard an insurance coverage firm depend on circumstances being good?
Subcontractors are liable for offering their very own workers with employees’ comp, but when they don’t, you’ll be held accountable if any of these workers has an damage.
Fantasy #8. “You possibly can cut back the price of employees’ comp insurance coverage by reporting a decrease payroll.”
Since employees’ comp premiums are primarily based partly in your firm’s payroll, some enterprise house owners (and even insurance coverage brokers!) have gotten inventive in the case of saving cash. By reporting a decrease payroll quantity, they’re writing insurance policies at a lot decrease charges.
We’ve talked about this (unlawful) follow earlier than. Not solely will your deception be uncovered through the annual employees’ comp audit, however you’ll have to pay a wonderful equal to “ten instances the quantity of the distinction […] and cheap legal professional’s charges.”
The fines, prison fees, and misplaced earnings (since you’ll be pressured to stop operations) of your lie might spell the tip for your small business.
Fantasy #9. “Most employees’ comp claims are pretend.”
A research by the College of Michigan discovered that solely 1-2% of employees’ comp claims are pretend, so it’s unlikely that your workers are scamming you.
Should you suspect that one in all your workers is faking an damage, report the incident to the Division of Employees’ Compensation and the Bureau of Employees Compensation Fraud. Fraud is not only unlawful; it additionally causes insurance coverage premiums throughout all industries to go up.
Fantasy #10. “My workers will ask for compensation for ‘ache and struggling’ and reap the benefits of me.”
No enterprise proprietor likes to suppose that their workers are profiting from them. However in the case of employees’ comp, that is merely unimaginable.
Whenever you buy Florida employees’ compensation insurance coverage by means of an insurance coverage firm, you pay your month-to-month premiums and that’s it. Any employees comp claims that happen can be paid by your insurance coverage firm.
What’s extra, Florida legal guidelines dictates that “ache and struggling” are usually not lined by employees’ compensation.
Fantasy #11. “The injured worker’s declare is paid, so my obligation is over.”
Not so quick!
A employees’ comp declare being paid doesn’t essentially imply that your worker is cleared for work. Your position because the boss is to watch your worker’s restoration and safeguard their return to work from additional damage.
By assuming that they’re “again to regular” and placing them again into the job that injured them within the first place, you threat slowing, halting, and even reversing the restoration that’s occurred to this point.
As an alternative, converse to your worker (after they’ve spoken with their physician) to work out a plan for transitioning them again into their regular position.
Harry Levine Insurance coverage Can Assist Reply Your Florida Employees Compensation Questions
Employees’ comp protection in Florida isn’t a luxurious or a option to rip-off you. It’s a option to defend your small business from threat, and in some circumstances, it’s the legislation.
Understanding what employees’ comp insurance coverage is (and what it isn’t) will assist you to defend your organization and your workers so you’ll be able to keep in enterprise for a very long time.
Should you’re in want of a Florida employees’ compensation insurance coverage quote or some other sort of enterprise insurance coverage, name us as we speak to get began.
